On 8/11/2016 5:58 PM, Capitol wrote:
Read a Telegraph article today on these. Do they have a future?

I was asked this in the pub last night, but had to look up the article.
What I thought was particularly poor was the journalist's implication
that there is so much progress that we will be able to rely on them
completely in five to ten years. Picking this Harvard one as a leader
when it is clearly still at the small scale laboratory stage was a cheap
tactic.

There's been serious research into batteries since the 1970's, I
remember meeting a guy who was working on the sodium-sulphur battery
when I was on a sodium handling course at Dounreay, at a time when that
was supposed to be imminent. Obviously, I welcome research by world
class organisations and I suspect that Musk is on to something for high
end domestic. But I don't see solar panels and windmills on the roof,
plus a cellar full of batteries, taking something like a major hospital
or medium to heavy industry off the grid. Not any time soon, at least.