Silicon “sandwiches” make for lightweight, high-capacity batteries

Another day, another far off promise of better battery tech ;)

Always interesting to read and hear about it, and at the same time progress is frustratingly slow for what's available here in the real world.

It sounds like an implicit admission that it can deliver superior performance but is expected to be too expensive for large scale applications like electric vehicles.

I prefer that over the hubris of press releases that say a battery recently demonstrated in the lab could change the whole world in 5-10 years.

I'm a total lay person on this front, but I have an educated guess. Space is where the biggest monetary savings are gained by having a lighter battery. It's easier to offset the increased cost a young battery technology tends to have before economies of scale in manufacturing take over.

Research grants need justification.

Shinny press release is a good start.

Also when Working on a project with multi-decade timescales and low odds of success, you celebrate the wins you can.