this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2025
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Technology

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Honestly, $70 for 9,000 mAh for cutting edge battery tech isn’t as much as I’d expect. That was about the going rate when we first started seeing portable battery banks being sold as a dedicated item. For obvious reasons, this won’t be something the average person gets, but it exists and it’s no longer just in labs.

Not to mention, the improvements in longevity and temperature range were benefits I wasn’t aware of. Exciting!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If it really last for a decade without significant degradation or the other components failing, it could be cheaper in the long run rather over the semi frequent replacements of Lithium Ion over the same time frame.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Unfortunately most consumers only look at the sticker price, not TCO.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

My god how does anyone read these articles with the amount of adverts breaking up the text and flashing in your face?

P.S. On a new device that isn’t fully setup yet. As blocker incoming.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago

The modern internet is literally unusable without ad blockers.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (3 children)

but it's not cheap

what?

The entire point is that this 'almost' competes with LFP but not as good,

But the trade off is it's suppose to be cheaper.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The other real tradeoff is that it doesn't rely on rare earth materials in order to function. Sodium is incredibly abundant and can easily be filtered out of seawater for all the world's needs for the next thousand years.

It's also theoretically less toxic and less likely to explode, and even though for now it costs more than lithium, what with lithium having had 20-some odd years of development behind it, the price will come down because the raw materials to make it are abundant and cheap.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

it just ocurred to me. could this be done on desalination plants for drinkable water? how much sodium are we talking about here?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

you dont have to be cheap to compete with LFP, if other aspects of the battery surpass it, e.g degredation, charging speed are two major examples, just having the alternative is a major step. being cheaper is generally just a byproduct of the fact that the supply chain hasn't started mass producing it. If anyone is expecting newer battery tech to go guns a blazing, then they for example still dont understand why processor chips are still on silicon and not on like carbon nanotubes or graphene for example.

theres a typical huge wall in order to make new tech cheaper than the widely used current tech, especially if its supply chain has been there for over a decade.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

It's a production scale thing. The lithium-based battery manufacturing has been scaling for nearly two decades, it's why the batteries keep getting cheaper even though the increasing demand for the raw materials keeps increasing their cost.

The engineering needs to catch up to the research and development, then the production cost will drop.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The article lists it at $67 for 9,000mah.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Its a gen 0 product. Practically a prototype.

It doesn't use cobalt or lithium. It lasts 10x as long. It has a wider operating range in temperature.

It will definitely get cheaper. Seems like an excellent option for home energy storage. Who cares how heavy it is. Its just going to set there.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

weight starts to matter more when it comes to tech that you want to carry with you, especially if said tech is in everything, so it compounds. the battery tech is much better suited like you said, for still installations, like home power walls for solar storage, as its weather resistant, last longer, and most importantly, doesnt spontaneously burst into flames.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

That is not cheap, but it isn't expensive either.

Since it's a pilot product, most likely it's not great and not terrible.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

They are bulky and last ten years in an extreme temperature range. I wonder if these could replace lead-acid batteries in ICE cars, which usually last 3-5 years.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I am by no means an expert, but I seem to remember that the reason lead-acid batteries are good for that particular job is that they can release a huge amount of stored energy in a very short time, which is what you want when you need to fire the ignition of a car. I think other battery types are much more limited in their maximum power output. I am absolutely not sure this is also true for this new type of battery, but it might be.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

I found one!

https://lanpwr.com/products/lanpwr-sodium-ion-starting-battery-user-manual-12v-50ah-610wh

The only downside seems to be price. It's about $388 USD whereas my last battery was about $150.

But that's cool that they exist.