What is the best type of energy storage system to use in transportation applications.

Question

The question really revolves around what the “best” ( ie most efficient, compact, low cost) energy storage system would be to use within the UK transport infrastructure in the coming years (near future / emerging technologies). Is it for instance lithium ion battery cells that can be used in electric cars, buses and trains? Is it solid state batteries? Is it liquid air energy storage systems? Would any of these give sufficient range to cars/ buses/ trains? Would the cost go through the roof? How many recharges could be made?

Answer 1

While this is not necessarily an easy question to answer and I recommend you look into the companies doing research and development into this. From my understanding the main distributive technology is lithium ion batteries, I say this because if you look into thermal management of electric vehicles, they are primarily concerned with keeping the lithium ion batteries at good operational temperature. I have not once in the recent literature seen anything suggest other types of batteries.