Nearly 150 years ago, Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse fought a battle for the supremacy of Direct Current (DC) vs. Alternating Current (AC) known as the War of the Currents.
Not only was the War of the Currents full of false accusations and intrigue, but the war’s short-term winner — AC — did not become the singular best solution in the long run. As vacuum tubes, then semiconductors, grew more common, DC took on an increasing role in the electrical chain from power generation to end-use. Today, both types of power — DC and AC — are used wherever each works best. AC is still used between power plants and buildings. But electronic equipment, including LED lighting, computers, and inverter-driven motors, increasingly convert AC to DC before use, while renewable power generation and storage increasingly converts from DC to AC.
Like the War of the Currents 150 years ago, today another war is being imagined — a “War of the Elements” for energy storage and transport, between hydrogen, as used in fuel cells and engines, and lithium, as used in lithium-ion batteries.
With the benefits of 150 years of hindsight, what lesson can we apply from Edison and Westinghouse’s War of the Currents to today’s imagined War of the Elements?
It is that diversity is a better solution than monoculture.
In particular:
Lithium, when used in lithium-ion batteries, has high energy efficiency and uses existing charging infrastructure, but has low energy per mass and limited charging rate, making it impractical for large vehicles.
By contrast, Hydrogen, as used in hydrogen fuel cells and engines, has high energy per mass and a high charging rate, but lower energy efficiency and needs new charging infrastructure. In contrast to lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen particularly excels in large vehicles.
Each approach has its benefits and its drawbacks, and each is strong where the other is weak:
Poor old Toyota – DESPERATE to keep going and avoid bankruptcy – with their gas and hybrid cars and hydrogen misinformation.. They helped Trump reverse a number of incentives for electric cars…