Re: [OT]What's the price index of your laptop's battery?
On Sat, 12 Dec 2009 01:42:49 +0100
lee <lee@yun.yagibdah.de> dijo:
>On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 10:45:31PM +0100, Emanoil Kotsev wrote:
>>
>> no need of lithium at all.
>
>What's the alternative? Have they found another resource to make
>batteries from?
There are lots and lots of ways to make batteries. The great advantage of
lithium is that it has by far the greatest power to weight ratio of any other
material. This is very important for laptops.
The disadvantage of lithium is that it is expensive. Cost is determined by
supply and demand, and lithium is in short supply. If, starting right now, gas
engines were outlawed for automobiles and all future automobiles were pure
electric running on lithium-based batteries, the known world reserves of
lithium would keep us in cars for about 50 years. Of course, used batteries
could be recycled, so we could probably go considerably longer. Nevertheless,
there is a very limited amount available.
Furthermore, there are political issues. The greatest reserves of lithium are
in Chile. The Chilean government will not allow foreign investors to develop
the resource, yet Chile does not have the financial resources to do it alone.
There are also large reserves in Siberia and China, and some in Nevada, USA.
If you look at the history of batteries you will note that the rate of new
battery inventions has been increasing dramatically. Since 1950 the number of
new technologies patented has increased, each decade bringing more new
inventions than the previous decade. I am hoping that the future will bring us
better options.
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