The developments on storing energy is diverse. Here we stick to the storage of electricity only and that is already pretty diverse. We forget the big tweaks made on Lithium batteries and have a look t at wider variations. from capacitors to batteries made from solar panels.
Seeing is believing.
Supercapacitor
A supercapacitor can store electrical energy and is very light. It can be charged very quickly and can supply a lot of energy. A disadvantage is that it cannot yet hold the electrical charge properly. The capacity is also still small. Supercapacitors have long been used to power the flash on a camera. Recently they have also been used in cordless drills.
Saltwater battery
A saltwater battery works on the same simple principle as a lead-acid battery. Only the chemical reactions are not that intense. A saltwater battery therefore requires a lot of space and is relatively heavy. However, many more charging cycles are possible. The saltwater battery has recently been made industrially.
This heavy storage is suitable for large ships. Its advantages are the durability and simplicity of the principle, and therefore of maintenance and repairs.
Condensed battery
A Chinese car battery manufacturer says to come up with a so-called condensed battery that can contain 500 watt hours per kilo. This would be very light and even interesting for aircraft.
Core of grinded solar panels
With silicon as a basis, a relatively light silicon battery could be made, even lighter than an LFP battery. The grain size of the silicon must then be only a few nanometers, which makes it more expensive than gold. A way has recently been found to separate the silicon from old solar panels and then grind it into nanograins. All this in a simple and cheap way. As the development of solar panels continues, the old panels automatically become waste. But with this invention, discarded solar panels could be the raw material for future batteries.
This is just a view to the horizon or beyond. Please don’t wait for these developments, because most of them will not make it to the market.