"Reserves are the biggest advantage of sodium-ion batteries. The content of sodium in the earth is 2.75%. In comparison, the lithium element required for the lithium-ion batteries currently being studied by our mainstream research has only 0.0065% in the earth's crust, a difference of 423 times. And , This is just a theoretical gap. In fact, compared to the unlimited sodium that humans can extract from the ocean, which occupies 70% of the earth’s surface, the world’s currently proven lithium resources are pitifully small.”
"Reserves directly affect costs."
"Take two metals as an example. The current price of metallic sodium is US$750 per ton, while that of metallic lithium is as high as US$82,000, a difference of 109 times. Because sodium-ion batteries are still in the laboratory stage, the future commercial price gap is temporarily unknown. However, Our team estimates that if one day in the future, the production volume of the two batteries is large enough, the price difference will be at least ten times."
"It's big enough, and that's exactly what sodium-ion batteries are for."
"First of all, it is undeniable that sodium-ion batteries have obvious shortcomings. Compared with lithium-ion batteries, under current laboratory conditions, the best performance is only about half the energy density of the latter. But if the battery is made large enough, Far exceeding the milliampere-hour (mAh) level of current portable electronic products and reaching the megawatt-hour (MWh) level, sodium-ion batteries will completely crush lithium-ion batteries in terms of overall cost and other aspects."
“It can be said that in a few decades, once there is a shortage of traditional fossil energy, the combination of the ultra-large photovoltaic power generation matrix that SolarCity is currently responsible for researching and the ultra-large sodium-ion battery energy storage matrix that we cooperate with Rectery will It is an important solution for mankind to get rid of the energy crisis in the future."
“…”
“…”
San Francisco.
Westeros Systems originally bought the Bay Area branch of Rectery Company from IBM after the battery business unit was integrated.
This is the morning of May 29th.
The time is Saturday.
Simon specially spent the whole morning today to listen to the technical director of the Rectery division here to report on the progress of a series of research projects of the company. One of the highlights is a sodium-ion battery research project that was officially established last year.
This is a project specially included in the 3G plan by Simon.
As for the reasons, resource reserves, manufacturing costs, environmental factors, application environment, etc., in short, except that the energy storage density cannot be compared with lithium-ion batteries, there are many other advantages.
Speaking of which, battery research related to the two elements actually appeared at about the same time. The reason why people later only knew about lithium-ion batteries and almost never heard of sodium-ion batteries is that the key is energy density.
Because the main application area of traditional batteries is portable electronic devices, because they are portable, batteries cannot be too large or heavy, so they need to be as small as possible while storing more energy, so lithium-ion batteries stand out.
However, if we take a longer-term view, Simon believes that sodium-ion batteries are a key future.
As the technical director said, ultra-large photovoltaic power generation matrix combined with ultra-large sodium ion electronic energy storage matrix will be an important solution for mankind to get rid of the energy crisis in the future.
In comparison, lithium resources are too scarce.
Perhaps it is like the two directions of display screens in the past, with LCD facing small screens and plasma heading towards large screens, each developing separately.
However, it is difficult to say whether the two types of batteries will be like LCD and plasma in the future. After all, before Simon was reborn, the dispute between the two screens had been settled. When LCD broke through the limitations of large screens, even if the display effect was better, plasma would still be Was quickly eliminated.
In the future, once the gap in energy storage density is no longer huge, perhaps lithium-ion batteries will be eliminated overnight.
Only time will tell.
What Simon can do is give more possibilities.
After the morning meeting, Simon left Rectery's branch building in Eagletree Park, Mountain View, and rushed to a private villa near the bay for dinner.
Arriving at the villa, Lady D and little Jenny had already arrived early.
Mainly... Recently there was another one, girl D was also pregnant. It was the same time last time, not long after the two little ones with waist and leg sperm were born, Simon returned from China.
In short, anyway, I’m not afraid of bites and don’t have any worries.
Simon had just chatted with the two girls. Girl C dragged Alice Ferguson to the villa. The workaholic girl looked very reluctant, as if she thought it was too much to come from the work area to a residential area for a meal. A high-frequency state that wastes time.
Then, Emmanuel Brandt, the tall red-haired female president in charge of FusionTimes, also came to join in the fun.
So it was a lively table.
After hearing about Simon's morning schedule, Girl C first raised doubts: "Boss, I'm thinking, if controllable nuclear fusion is realized in the future... well, at least before the exhaustion of traditional fossil energy, you are targeting photovoltaic power generation and energy storage batteries. Wouldn’t my research be in vain?”
Little Jenny added next to her: "Or, Simon, are you not optimistic about the future of controllable nuclear fusion?"
Simon smiled and shook his head: "I didn't say that I was not optimistic. This is just one of the solutions for the future. You know, in my opinion, the current human society is like an increasingly complex machine. You all understand "The more complex the machine, the more unstable it is, rather than the more stable it subconsciously feels to most people. Therefore, it is definitely better to have more solutions to deal with certain potential crises."
A certain workaholic girl lowered her head to eat while holding the cutlery. She was so clever that she softly concluded, as if she didn't mean to speak, "a pessimist."
Girl D, who could easily get to Simon's side because of her pregnancy, couldn't help laughing.
Simon also laughed and retorted: "I can only say that you are too optimistic."
Emmanuel, who is quietly trying to integrate into this circle, is supportive: "I think that even if controllable nuclear fusion is achieved, photovoltaic power generation and energy storage batteries will still have many application needs, such as space exploration. If we want to build the moon or Mars In terms of base and energy, photovoltaic power generation combined with energy storage batteries is undoubtedly the most feasible solution, but unless we can achieve the miniaturization of controllable nuclear fusion power plants, it will not be realistic to build nuclear power plants simultaneously in outer space in the short term."
Little Jenny said: "You can use a small fission device. It has been realized now."
Simon said: "As an environmentalist, I think it is best not to send fission devices that may cause serious pollution to the moon or Mars."
The workaholic girl answered again in a strange way: "I agree."
"Actually," Emmanuel said again: "According to Kardashev's cosmic civilization level setting, the realization of controllable nuclear fusion is only a complete first-level civilization, while the symbol of a second-level civilization is something similar to photovoltaic heating. Energy storage is combined with the idea of a Dyson sphere that fully utilizes stellar energy. After all, no matter how powerful the controllable nuclear fusion power generation devices we humans create are, they cannot reach the level of one billionth of the energy released by stars."
Girl C took a small bite of the caviar-smeared piece of bread and asked, "Isn't this a bit too far?"
Emmanuel said: "Because of the explosion of technology, even a hundred years ago, no one in the world could have imagined our current life. Similarly, once controllable nuclear fusion is realized, the new energy solution of photovoltaics and energy storage will be With promotion and unlimited productivity, we may soon achieve a second technological explosion. In this case, the topics we just discussed are certainly not far away.”
Girl D said: "I think it won't be that simple."
"Yes," Simon nodded, seeing all the girls at the dinner table looking over, he said, "Because the ideal model will always encounter too many unpredictable variables. The biggest variable is us humans. Not everyone wants to see it. If they know that we have the hope of achieving controllable nuclear fusion in a short period of time, they may stop it at all costs, including using the most extreme methods."
Simon said calmly, but Girl D couldn't help but shrink her neck, and little Jenny looked over with a clearly worried look.
Simon noticed the reactions of the women, smiled, shook his head and said: "Don't worry, as the richest capitalist in the world, I am not incapable of fighting back."
The prerequisite for talking about interests is strength after all.
In movies and TV dramas, scientists who develop breakthrough energy technologies are often hunted by capitalists, but there are few cases where capitalists are hunted down because of this. In the final analysis, it is actually about strength.
Speaking of strength, in the recent film and television industry, "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" is undoubtedly the most powerful one.
The film opened on May 19. As Simon had judged before, public opinion level was almost overwhelmingly critical of the film. Many fans who had been waiting for it for a long time also expressed strong disappointment. However, with a comprehensive score of 5.3, it obviously still has a sentimental reputation. It does not affect the countless viewers paying for memories.
Counting the Wednesday and Thursday that started in advance, in the nine days from May 19th to May 27th, the first part of the prequel made a crazy $140.19 million, which is almost the same as the American version of "Love" that currently ranks first in the year. "Hoo" local box office total.
It is currently entering its second box office week. According to the single-day data on the next Friday, the complete box office of the film in the second week of its release is likely to be around 80 million, and the biweekly cumulative total is expected to reach 220 million. Compared with Daenerys's super blockbusters, which are increasingly expensive to produce, the cost of the first part of this prequel is only 115 million. Obviously, commercially, Lucasfilm almost made a fortune.
However, this is probably the limit.
As before, after the film was released, the industry paid more attention to the sales of peripheral products than the box office, because the film itself had a disappointing reputation and was a bleak one.
Due to the expected huge losses, the stock prices of major peripheral toy manufacturers such as Hasbro and Lego even plummeted.
Again, Lucas screwed up.
Countless fans have redeemed their long-awaited feelings, and then, at least, the audience will no longer have high expectations for Lucas himself to direct this series.
Another result of the matter is the merger of Fox, MGM and Lucasfilm. There are no internal obstacles.
Before the release of the first prequel, George Lucas also tried to gain more benefits for himself on some details of the merger of the three companies because of the strong social response of the film. In recent days, this guy quietly went to Hawaii for a vacation, and there was no mention of things like additional personal approval of high-dividend preferred shares.
Also, after the 80 million is expected to consume the potential again next week, the subsequent box office trend of the first part of the prequel can be imagined, and everyone no longer has to worry about the continued crushing of their new films. Even if the first part of the prequel consumes too much market potential, there is no need to worry too much. Because of disappointment, many people may want to watch other movies to make up for their psychological trauma.
Then came June 1999.
Entering June, on the Yugoslav side, a certain variable that Simon had been paying attention to completely disappeared. This regional war ended with the Russian army suddenly attacking from northern Kosovo on June 2 in Sla on the outskirts of Pristina, the capital of central Kosovo. Tina Airport took a turn for the worse.
Prior to this, NATO, which had brought Yugoslavia to ruins with continuous air strikes, was complacent, and Russia, the only country in the region that had the ability to directly intervene in this war, was always just talking about it, so that everyone thought that NATO was completely The occupation of Kosovo is almost a certainty.
Of course, on the surface, the word 'occupy' certainly doesn't work.
The excuse everyone gave was 'peacekeeping'.
No one expected that Russia would actually dare to launch a surprise attack and seize the only airport in the capital of Kosovo, competing with NATO for the power to 'peace-keeping' Kosovo.
Anyway, the result of the matter was that in order to avoid the outbreak of the 'Third World War', a British army that was directly confronting the Russian task force did not dare to attack the Russian army to retake the airport, and therefore lost 100% control. Opportunities in Kosovo.
After taking over the airport and controlling such an important transportation hub, Russia quickly sent a large number of troops to Kosovo and took more and more initiative.
With Russia disrupting the situation, the Yugoslav side no longer gave in blindly at the originally one-sided negotiation table. Therefore, it is basically confirmed that Russia and NATO will jointly exert influence in the Kosovo region.
The military strikes that lasted for several months brought about this result, and NATO was undoubtedly extremely disappointed. However, everyone just did not expect that Russia, which is already extremely weak, would really dare to do such a thing.
However, Russia has precisely the military strength to do this kind of thing, and it also prevents NATO from taking any rash action.
The reason is simple: no one wants World War III to break out.
On the other hand, in Russia, the Russian army airborne into Kosovo and regained its influence in Yugoslavia. As the Russian army gained a foothold in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, there was a lot of publicity in the country.
Moreover, the protagonist of this propaganda is no longer Yeltsin.
The previous adventure, led by someone personally, was also Yeltsin's last test.
If he messes up, even if he makes a promise to Simon, Yeltsin may have no choice but to become prime minister again due to pressure from all parties at home and abroad. Now, the thing has happened, which not only convinced Yeltsin of someone's ability to control the situation, but also accumulated the first prestige chips for the other party to influence the Russian election next year.
Now, the whole thing has definitely worked out for the best.