Indeed, the fact that they filed a patent is also an indicator that this is not purely an experiment, but a tangible way forward. Let's hope this can scale up quickly.

[–] whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 11 points 4 months ago

it's not just another article about a new revolutionary discovery because that's the only way to have funds?

[–] Natanael 9 points 4 months ago

Eh, the patent office hasn't had standards for practically for like a century, just that you describe a novel method

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

There's a pile of battery patents that are all game-changing but when a company decides to make a dedicated factory that's when you know shit is going down.

[–] muhyb@programming.dev 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Yup. Studies on sodium batteries has been going on for years. If they finally achieve good enough state this is big since lithium is limited and expensive while sodium is everywhere. However sodium batteries will never be effective as lithium batteries because of the atom size. Lithium is much smaller than sodium.

[–] Badeendje@lemmy.world 14 points 4 months ago

Well we are in dire need of grid size storage so this is excellent then.

[–] BehindTheBarrier@programming.dev 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

True, but this is solid state so it may be higher density than current Lithium based batteries. But it might not beat a hypothetical lithium solid state battery. On the other hand, sodium batteries today beat out lithium in many other ways than capacity, and if those things are true for solid state then as long as there is a big enough jump in capacity due to the solid state transition then I think sodium is going to be the go-to for most uses in the future.

[–] muhyb@programming.dev 2 points 4 months ago

Don't actually know about density differences but I'm quite positive that sodium batteries will be used in many sectors because it will be much cheaper. Probably not on cars, maybe not on phones as well. It will be enough for all other small appliances I think.