Why China Could Dominate the Next Big Advance in Batteries

[Zorro]

China is far ahead of the rest of the world in the development of batteries that use sodium, which are starting to compete with ubiquitous lithium power cells.

In Changsha, deep in China’s interior, thousands of chemists, engineers and manufacturing workers are shaping the future of batteries.

The city’s Central South University churns out the graduates who are advancing the technology, much as Stanford University molded the careers of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who pioneered microchips. Across the Xiang River, vast factories mix minerals into the highly processed compounds that make rechargeable batteries possible.

These batteries, mostly made of lithium, have powered the rise of cellphones and other consumer electronics. They are transforming the auto industry and could soon start doing the same for solar panels and wind turbines crucial in the fight against climate change. China dominates their chemical refining and production.

Now China is positioning itself to command the next big innovation in rechargeable batteries: replacing lithium with sodium, a far cheaper and more abundant material.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/12/business/china-sodium-batteries.html

[Disaffected]

1. This should be a strong cautionary note to

those countries & business organizations that are busily trying to explore for deposits and develop lithium mines & processing.

[Igel]

2. Sodium batteries are still a bit experimental.

Although, thanks to biases in NFS funding, China owns a number of very significant patents on sodium batteries.

Ask for a sodium-based grant, well, that's not the future of EV and proto-ESG. Too experimental, we know the future.

Work on sodium batteries has been backgrounded because of a crisis. And that bias might lead to a far worse crisis.

Yet, you know, not all the bugs are worked out of Na+ batteries and in the end the energy density might mean it's DOA.


I've found a lot of students aren't sure about the different in writing between "could dominate" and "will dominate" and "have dominated". They see the words and say, "Domin ... TikTok! It's been two minutes, FOMO!!!!"