New Cobalt-free Li-ion battery reduces costs with similar design and performance

I am somewhat skeptical that it can work, but flow batteries are still in their industrial infancy, and with the right sort of cheap stuff to add to water this could potentially scale very well for some sources.

I also strongly agree that we will likely build renewable sources to match their output to the seasonal minimum needs, rather than have many TWh of storage, it I have been so wrong in the past that I no longer want to cut off potentially promising avenues.

I see our future as being one of electrical energy abundance at nearly all times, and only a few times a year will there be a crunch to limit consumption; however as we get used to that abundance, conservation could get more difficult, and also people will get far more clever with time arbitrage of energy demand. And once there's a huge market for arbitrage, people will get more clever to serve that economic need, in ways that we have not yet anticipated.

The resulting work is more important than the efficiency. Teslas have exceptionally low air drag, which is great for driving range.

However when you go from 80 to 90% system efficiency, you only increase range by 12%. Once youre at 99%, you really cant improve any more. 99% to 99.5% means the motor outputs half as much heat but goes hardly any farther.

That is not exactly true. OLED can be very efficient. Not just in Dark Mode, but you need to be aware of those pitfalls and optimise for it. Since in overall package the Display is roughly the same power but you get much better quality.

Not to mention there are at least 3 - 5 years roadmap of technology in the pipeline that makes it even more energy efficient and thinner. ( Thinner equals potential for larger battery )

But of course modern smartphones do a lot more, and I spend lots more time with my smartphone as well.

I don't think you're wrong, I just am not entirely clear on what claim you're making. I'll venture based on context that the cost you're talking about is either electrical charge or time, but it's very unclear what benefit you're talking about.

Dahn's research is so well respected because he was incredibly good and thorough in measuring tiny amounts of heat and voltage changes in batteries so that you could trace their degradation over a much smaller number of cycles, then try them out at longer scales. Tesla has been funding much of his lab. There are very few people who can do this kind of research outside his lab, and IMO he's a wizard who will end up with a Nobel if he makes a few more big contributions.

The bottom line is that the only way to really tell if a battery will last a year or a decade is to watch it for a year or a decade. No amount of technology lets you forecast the future with perfect accuracy, and battery longevity testing takes time. That's the only reason we don't have a million mile battery.

That would be a good argument if batteries had been stuck for decades at a much lower limit. But the fact is their lifetime has been steadily increasing, and will reach a million miles within a few years at most.

A 1 million mile battery is kinda like fusion. Once it happens there is no going back so I don't think that failing to solve this problem is a blow to EVs.

I think "free truck" operated to design specifications constitutes cost effective.

Your comment is abhorrently condescending and shallow. Yes, you have highlighted a historic atrocity and grievance of the region - why is this a reason why the west shouldn't try to help these people? In your mind, are the people of the DRC "beyond" help? That's an awfully charged and deconstructive opinion my friend.

However, it's painfully evident that the UN is incapable of keeping the peace or trying to stabilize the region. In short, I'm trying to start a discussion here as to how nations with some sense of diplomacy and interest in these minerals could mediate in a meaningful way. There simply must be a better way. Not to be blunt, but we need a similarly over-regulated private offering equivalent to the "public" option of german healthcare. Curious if an impact fund of some kind could cooperate with NGO's and the UN? The formation of some kind of demilitarized zone? There has to be a way to improve this situation and prevent more of their own people being killed?

Mostly in order to prevent China from coming in and clearing house like they have in other regions of Africa.

BTW it reads "you can't buy the wind, sun, rain, ..."