A Swiss company based in Staefa, claims it developed zinc-air batteries capable to hold three times the energy of lithium ion batteries, by volume, while costing only half as much, and compared with other existing air batteries, this one would be rechargeable.
In the next few years the company ReVolt plans to incorporate its technology into ever larger batteries, introducing cell-phone and electric bicycle batteries. They also want to develop large-format batteries for electric cars.
The original design was created at SINTEF, a research institute in Trondheim, Norway, and ReVolt was founded to bring it to market and so far it has raised 24 million euros in investment. Zinc-air batteries rely on oxygen from the atmosphere to generate electricity, unlike other conventional batteries, which contain all the reactants needed to generate current.
According to James McDougall, the company’s CEO, when this technology will be scaled up, the new rechargeable zinc-air batteries could make electric vehicles more practical by increasing their range and lowering their costs.
[Source: TechnologyReview]
more power to them.
So far the only afforadable battery in production is lead acid.