The SmartPlanet blog has a post on low cost battery technology from a company called Acquion which uses cheap and plentiful materials - Batteries Made Of Salt Water last 10x Longer.
The company claims (PDF) :- Costs of less than US$300 per kWh (compared to lead acid batteries at US$200-400)- A lifetime of 5000+ recharge cycles (compared to lead acid batteries at 500-1000)- Energy density of around 25 Wh/Litre (compared to lead acid batteries with 50-80 Wh/L)
"Electrical power is the only commodity sold in the world right now without any kind of warehousing. When you plug something into the wall, you immediately pull energy from a generation asset. It’s not stored anywhere. We store data, water, and gas. We do not store electricity. Historically, it’s just been too expensive," Whitacre said."For the first time, renewable power sources are competitive with traditional, especially in developing countries," Whitacre said. Lead acid batteries aren’t as good as the manufacture promised. Aquion’s batteries have a much longer life. "We believe we can last 5 to 10 times longer than lead acid at the same price point," he said.
Read on at http://peakenergy.blogspot.com
