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As you say, practicable batteries in production have specific energy under 300 Wh/kg (1 MJ/kg), 40x worse than fuel. The other technologies you mention don't s
by FabHK 5y ago
As you say, practicable batteries in production have specific energy under 300 Wh/kg (1 MJ/kg), 40x worse than fuel.
The other technologies you mention don't seem to be practical for now. I don't think it is reasonable to expect any breakthrough making it to market in the next decade. With specific energy doubling every 10+ yrs, electric flight might be sensible for niche applications (training flights, occasional urban transport for example to the airport) in a few years, but for anything else it'll be several decades realistically.
- kragen 5y agoHydrogen-air fuel cells and aluminum-air batteries don't need any breakthroughs to work; they're well-understood, proven technology. They're just more expensive than kerosene and, in the case of hydrogen, more voluminous. To put it differently, the reason nobody is flying across the country today on aluminum-air battery power is not that the existing batteries don't have the range; it's that they can fly across the country more cheaply on a combustion-powered jet. (I think that will continue to be the case even when the combustion fuel is synthesized with electrical energy.)