Battery Shortage Poses Major Innovative Threat To Electric Vehicle Push

Predictions

from the bigger-better-bupkis dept

In most people’s heads, electric vehicles are going to very quickly supplant gas-powered vehicles in the next few years, resulting in massive disruption and a massive boost to climate change mitigation. But there’s trouble in paradise: experts continue to warn that we lack the elements and supply chain necessary to ramp up production of electric vehicles at the scale that exists in everybody’s imagination.

Oddly, this is usually some kind of weird footnote in EV discourse. But last week, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe clearly pointed out that we’re facing a massive battery shortage (warning: paywall) as companies engage in a mad dash to lock down supplies of cobalt, lithium, battery-grade graphite, and nickel needed for batteries:

“All the world’s cell production combined represents well under 10% of what we will need in 10 years,” Scaringe noted. “Meaning, 90% to 95% of the supply chain does not exist.”

I imagine that as a smaller player, Scaringe is nervous about all the bigger players engaged in a mad dash to lock down already limited resources, and his call could be construed as a call for some government help. Though that doesn’t make his concerns any less true. The scale of the challenge is fairly massive:

Battery evolution will continue and engineering may lift some of this strain in time, but it’s pretty clear that the speedy EV timeline that exists in many people’s heads isn’t realistic. Such restrictions should also probably result in a re-assesment of what kind of vehicles get build priority, since you can build a dozen smaller vehicles with the components and minerals needed to build one Hummer EV:

This being America, the demand side of the equation isn’t likely to want to meaningfully integrate those considerations.

Granted this is occurring at the same time as folks are finally realizing the massive weight of some of these much larger EVs is going to pose a notable safety threat on the road to smaller vehicles, incentivizing Americans who already like big stuff to prioritize bigger EVs for family safety, therefore accelerating supply constraints.

Addressing that cycle will require more actual engineering innovation, and less… innovation performance art.

Filed Under: auto regulation, auto safety, battery, disruption, electric vehicles, EVs, innovation, supply chain

PS4 Battery Time-Keeping Time-Bomb Silently Patched By Sony; PS3 Consoles Still Waiting

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the tick-tock dept

Over the past several months, there have been a couple of stories that certainly had owners of Sony PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 consoles completely wigging out. First came Sony’s announcement that it was going to shut down support for the PlayStation Store and PlayStation Network on those two consoles. This briefly freaked everyone out, the thinking being that digitally purchased games would be disappeared. Sony confirmed that wouldn’t be the case, but there was still the question of game and art preservation, given that no new purchases would be allowed and that in-game purchases and DLC wouldn’t be spared for those who bought them. As a result of the outcry, Sony reversed course for both consoles specifically for access to the PlayStation Store, nullifying the debate. Except that immediately afterward came word of an issue with the PS3 and PS4 console batteries and the way they check in with the PlayStation Network (PSN) to allow users to play digital or physical game media. With the PSN still sunsetting on those consoles, the batteries wouldn’t be able to check in, and would essentially render the console and all the games users had worthless and unplayable.

But now that too has been corrected by Sony, albeit in a completely unannounced fashion.

PlayStation owners wanting to preserve their PS4 libraries well into the future can breathe a sigh of relief, as the system’s latest firmware update reportedly fixes a time bomb found inside every console.

While Sony’s official patch notes for the 9.00 update strangely make no mention of the CMOS fix, that lack of mention may point to a change in its attitude about PlayStation’s legacy platforms. With PS5’s backward-compatibility limited (so far) to PS4 titles and in the absence of a major overhaul to its PS Now streaming library of games, taking the step to push an update that nixes the CMOS issue on PS3 as well would be a welcome shift.

So now PS4 owners are off the hook, though whether they know it or not appears to be a matter of whether they read the news about this on sites like this. PS3 owners, meanwhile, don’t currently have a fix in place. And that really does highlight a continuing messaging and transparency problem when it comes to Sony and how it treats its PlayStation customers.

Sony has, far too often, had to either reverse course on its plans when its own fans go apeshit, such as when it finally enabled cross-console play for PlayStation games, or instead has had to weather tough public relations and legal storms when it kept to its plans, such as when it removed useful features from the PS3 via firmware update after the public had already bought the console.

It’s great that the company fixed this problem for the PS4 owners, but what about everyone else? Why not let people know the fix has been made? Why can’t this company communicate?

Filed Under: battery, battery bug, dlc, patching, ps3, ps4
Companies: sony

PlayStation Y2K-Like Battery Bug About To Become A Problem As Sony Shuts Down Check In Servers

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the tick-tock dept

We’ve had a couple of discussions now about video game preservation with the impetus being Sony’s shutdown of support for the PlayStation Store for PSP, PS3, and Vita owners. The general idea there was questioning what happens to games for those systems in the very long term if suddenly nobody can get to them anymore and the developers and publishers are not always retaining the source code and assets for these games on their end. That sort of thing is probably primarily of interest to us folks who look at these games as a form of art and culture, very much worth preserving.

But Sony may well have a much bigger issue on its hands. As a result of a strange internal time-check issue that exists on PS3 and PS4 consoles, there is the very real possibility that those consoles will be unable to play any purchased game soon if the end user replaces the battery on the device. It’s, well, it’s a bit like Y2K, but for real.

The root of the coming issue has to do with the CMOS battery inside every PS3 and PS4, which the systems use to keep track of the current time (even when they’re unplugged). If that battery dies or is removed for any reason, it raises an internal flag in the system’s firmware indicating the clock may be out of sync with reality.

After that flag is raised, the system in question has to check in with PSN the next time it needs to confirm the correct time. On the PS3, this online check happens when you play a game downloaded from the PlayStation Store. On the PS4, this also happens when you try to play retail games installed from a disc. This check has to be performed at least once even if the CMOS battery is replaced with a fresh one so the system can reconfirm clock consistency.

But if support for PSN goes away on these systems, so does the system’s ability to check in to reconfirm the correct time. And if that happens, well, then suddenly any PS4 game will no longer be playable, nor will any PS3 game bought as a digital download. Sony, in other words, can essentially render these consoles mostly or totally useless for playing games just by shutting down PSN support for these consoles.

Now, why did Sony create this problem for itself in the first place? Well, the answer is different for each console. On the PS3, it was used to enforce “time limits” on digital downloads. For the PS4, it appears to have been used more to keep gamers from messing with how trophies are shown, specifically for when they were earned. Either way, neither of those is so important at this point that Sony should risk bricking bought consoles as a result.

Interestingly, the fix for this should be a simple firmware update… except that Sony hasn’t said a word about whether one is coming.

Sony could render the problem moot relatively easily with a firmware update that limits the system functions tied to this timing check. Thus far, though, Sony hasn’t publicly indicated it has any such plans and hasn’t responded to multiple requests for comment from Ars Technica. Until it does, complicated workarounds that make use of jailbroken firmware are the only option for ensuring that aging PlayStation hardware will remain fully usable well into the future.

I can’t imagine a single reason why Sony would want this looming customer crises on its hands… unless it’s part of a plan to push the public to buy more, new-generation consoles and get their games back from there. If that is indeed the plan, the PR fallout is going to be insane.

Filed Under: battery, cmos, playstation, ps3, ps4, psn
Companies: sony

Daily Deal: Mophie Powerstation XL And Mophie Juice Pack Air

Deals

from the good-deals-on-cool-stuff dept

Keep your devices fully charged while you’re away from any outlets with a manufacturer refurbished Mophie Powerstation XL External Battery for only $39.95. It works with any device that has a USB-outfitted cable, and you can choose between 3 levels of charging — 500mAh, 1A, and 2.1A. This 12,000 mAh battery can charge up to two tablets simultaneously and lasts for up to 8 charges for most cell phones.

The manufacturer refurbished Mophie Juice Pack Air iPhone 6/6s Battery Case will help keep your iPhone charged and protected for only $49.95. The rechargeable 2750 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery contained in the case can be turned on whenever your phone’s battery needs a boost, and the hard case will protect your phone from bumps and bruises with great shock absorption.

Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals helps support Techdirt. The products featured do not reflect endorsements by our editorial team.

Filed Under: battery, daily deal, power station

DailyDirt: Storing Lots Of Energy

Green Tech

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The obvious challenge with renewable energy sources like solar and wind is: what do you do when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing? Solar and wind generators don’t tend to produce electricity in convenient amounts whenever we want, leading to wasted resources and further reliance on fossil fuel generators to keep up with electricity demand cycles. Storing lots of energy in an efficient way that can be readily recovered isn’t easy, but there are some solutions that could work.

• It sounds like a made-up high school physics problem, but there’s a startup called ARES (Advanced Rail Energy Storage) that wants to store energy by pushing heavy trains up a hill. When the energy is needed, the trains would roll back down the hill and generate electricity doing so. The rail system takes up a bit of space, but its backers compare it to a hydroelectric dam — but without the water and with less environmental impact. [url]
• The Llyn Peris reservoir has a hydroelectric generator with a peak output of 1.728 GW (great, Scott!). This storage station supplements Britain’s national grid, but it could power the city of Wales on its own for about 5.5 hours. [url]
• Storing energy in chemical batteries doesn’t sound quite as simple, but batteries take up a lot less space. Big cheap batteries for grid storage could use molten metal salts, but the technology still needs a bit more work before scaling up. [url]

After you’ve finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Filed Under: advanced rail energy storage, ares, battery, energy, energy storage, generators, llyn peris reservoir, solar power

DailyDirt: Tiny Generators… Instead Of Tiny Batteries?

Studies

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Battery technology just hasn’t improved as much as other electronic gadgets. We have computers that are more powerful than room-sized mainframes on our wrists, but we still can’t go more than a day without recharging a modern smartphone. We’ve seen suggestions of various kinds of portable fuel cells, but none seem ready for consumer gadgets just yet — even several years after promising announcements. There are a bunch of ways of generating relatively small amounts of energy from everyday activities, so maybe we can generate electricity as we need it as we walk around. But probably not.

• Microbial fuel cells could be a convenient way to take personal portable energy everywhere you go, and a UK-based research group has one that runs on urine. Yup. The metabolism of live microorganisms can turn organic waste into electricity — and urine has been demonstrated in a system that can recharge a smartphone. Another version of this system can be worn as socks (which would still require some way to get all the liquid to where it needs to go). The developers also say “smart toilets” could be a possible product. Uh, maybe in Japan? [url]
• If peeing into your socks doesn’t sound like the fashion statement you want to make, you can also try harnessing the power of your footsteps with piezoelectric shoes. This tech needs to be a step up from the light-up kids shoes, and several folks are working on prototypes to get good-looking, adult-sized shoes that also generate a useful amount of electricity. [url]
• Capturing the energy from evaporation is possible, but scaling it up will take some work. An evaporation-powered toy car looks pretty cool, but making a generator many, many times larger to produce a practical amount of energy might be challenging — especially since this method hasn’t been rigorously tested outdoors (yet). [url]
• Fujifilm has a flexible thermoelectric material that can generate electricity from body heat. This energy-generating polymer could be added to solar cells to capture more energy, and optimistically, this stuff could be added to clothing. Maybe even your pee-soaked socks, someday…. [url]

After you’ve finished checking out those links, take 10% off any $50+ order from our Daily Deals using the promo code DAILYDIRT.

Filed Under: battery, energy, evaporation, fuel cells, generators, mfc, microbial fuel cell, piezoelectric, thermoelectric, wearables
Companies: fujifilm

DailyDirt: Charging Up Your Car In The Future

Green Tech

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Charging an electric car battery can take hours, so it seems somewhat inconvenient compared to a few minutes at a conventional gas station to fill up a tank. Electric cars also have shorter ranges than conventional vehicles. There are a few solutions to these problems, but many of them aren’t quite ready for consumers. Here are a few possible technologies for cars that don’t run on gasoline.

• A battery startup called Sakti3 claims its battery could double the range of a Tesla S to nearly 500 miles. However, this battery isn’t commercially available yet, and it’s uncertain whether any electric vehicle would accept a battery from a third party manufacturer. [url]
• Supercapacitors could be made into structural parts of a car, storing energy without taking up unnecessary space. The researchers working on these supercapacitors have done some mechanical testing, but it might not be a great idea to store a lot of energy in a part of a car that might experience extreme structural failure in an impact… [url]
• One of the problems with using hydrogen as a fuel for vehicles is that it’s hard to store and transfer significant volumes of hydrogen safely and easily. Using ammonia instead might solve some of the problems and offer vehicles that are similar to ones powered by liquid natural gas, but ammonia as a fuel also introduces a few more engineering challenges. (Ahem. A corrosive, toxic gas under pressure might not be too safe for the general public to handle.) [url]

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Filed Under: ammonia, battery, cars, electric vehicles, energy, energy storage, fuel, hydrogen, lng, supercapacitor
Companies: sakti3

DailyDirt: All Electric Vehicles

Green Tech

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Electric vehicles are gaining some increasing acceptance on the roads, as some drivers realize that the vast majority of their trips are less than a 40-mile roundtrip. The “range anxiety” factor is still a concern for a lot of people, but there might be some alternatives to the existing rechargeable batteries in use today. Here are just a few examples of possible solutions to improve the energy storage capacity in electric cars.

• A German car maker is using a ‘nanoFLOWCELL’ technology to power its all electric vehicle. The Quant e-Sportlimousine might have a horrible name compared to a Tesla S/3/X, but it claims a range of 600 kilometers (372 miles). [url]
• Batteries might not be the best way to store energy for an electric vehicle, but the alternatives aren’t quite ready for commercial vehicles. One of these alternatives is based on a phenomenon called ‘thermopower wave’ where a fuel is ignited at the end of a carbon nanotube, and the resulting heat pushes electrons and creates electricity. These nanogenerators are far from being perfected, but they have the potential to efficiently turn high energy density fuels into electricity much more efficiently than an internal combustion engine. [url]
• Phinergy and Alcoa have an aluminum-air battery that could power a small EV for 1,000 miles. The catch is that when your aluminum-air battery is depleted, you’d have to replace an aluminum-containing cartridge at a special service station (so you couldn’t just recharge the aluminum-air battery by plugging it into a standard wall outlet). Still, it would could be a nice way to extend the range of an all-electric vehicle significantly with an energy storage technology that has a not-so-complex, closed-loop life cycle. [url]

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: aluminum-air battery, battery, electric vehicles, energy storage, ev, nanoflowcell, nanogenerators, nanotube, range anxiety, thermopower wave
Companies: alcoa, phinergy, quant, tesla

DailyDirt: Harnessing The Energy All Around Us

Green Tech

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Wearable devices would be a whole lot more convenient if they didn’t need to be charged regularly — if only self-winding watches could also be smartwatches. It’s not an entirely crazy idea, but smartwatches would have to be very energy efficient and not use much power in the first place. Nano-generators and ambient energy harvesting aren’t quite ready to keep the latest gadgets going indefinitely, but folks are working on this problem.

• One energy-harvesting nanogenerator made of zinc oxide nanorods can turn sound into electricity. A pocket-sized device with arrays of these little nanorods can convert sound vibrations into a 5-volt power supply. Not exactly a revolutionary battery replacement… yet? [url]
• Controlled bursts of plasma could transfer energy quickly from location to location, but it’s not that easy to direct plasma outside of a vacuum tube surrounded by electromagnets. Researchers just need a little more funding to get 1.21 GW of lightning into a flux capacitor, and then we’ll be all set. [url]
• Thermoelectric materials can convert heat into electricity, but decades of research hasn’t yet produced a thermoelectric generator that wasn’t for niche or novelty applications. A thermoelectric generator (TEG) prototype could be attached to solar heat collectors or the engine of a vehicle to capture waste heat, but commercialization is still years away. [url]

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: battery, electricity, energy, energy harvesters, materials, nanogenerators, nanotech, plasma, teg, thermoelectric, waste heat

DailyDirt: Better (Bigger) Batteries

Green Tech

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Battery technology is getting better all the time, but unfortunately not quite at the same pace as Moore’s law. While some folks lament the bottleneck of pocket-sized batteries that limit the operation of a phone or laptop to just a few hours (or a couple days on standby), some bigger batteries out there are limiting the growth of renewable energy use. Here are just a few battery projects that could solve some larger scale energy problems.

• One of the world’s largest lithium manganese batteries will be tested in the UK. This 6 megawatt battery installation should be ready to produce electricity in 2016, and it’ll help make renewable energy more compatible with conventional electricity infrastructure. [url]
• IBM has been working on lithium-air batteries for its Battery 500 project that aims to make an electric car battery capable of driving 500 miles. However, the researchers predict that we won’t see a commercial battery based on this technology until after 2020. [url]
• Grid scale batteries are already in use, but newer battery technologies could make it much more economical to use renewable energy sources in existing power stations. Still, it will be a few more years before these new battery designs prove their safety and reliability. [url]

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: battery, battery 500 project, electrical grid, energy, energy storage, infrastructure, renewable energy
Companies: ibm