It'll possibly be commercialised in ~2025, but they announced this week the first model : the BV100.
It gives 3V(, only 100μW but it's very small and can be used in series and parallel, they're aiming for 1W as soon as next year). 1gr. can store 3.3kWh(, ten thousand times more than lithium batteries, and 100 times more than hydrocarbons) !
It doesn't need to be charged for 50 years, which means a truly zero-cost car for instance, even more reliably than by using solar panels ; or a phone/drone/.. with infinite battery.
Furthermore, it doesn't even produce radioactive waste since the nickel-63 turns into stable copper, so it's even more easily recyclable than current lithium&chemical batteries, as well as more stable, being able to withstand temperatures between -60°C and 120°C.
It very likely intends to be affordable if it's intended for commercial use, but we'll see if they will be able to.
There must be a catch somewhere though, we'll see in the future.
to read more : https://www.laitimes.com/en/article/6d8um_6tl5g.html
just to 'talk about'/perceive something else than wars(, waged because of our 'hegemonic desire'/'opposition to peace/coexistence',) in the future.
You're probably right but(, the energy density being a hundred times better than hydrocarbons, we'd roughly need the space for 6 months of fuel(, 50 years divided by 100), and) if your only argument is knowing how to get rid of the excess heat then i can hardly see that as more than a moderate security hazard towards users removing the protection(, and it could even generate money by connecting it to something while unused !)
Furthermore if this technology encounters enough success then we'll probably find a way to have an impact on the rapidity of the reaction chain, as we do with nuclear reactors, but on a microscopic level, perhaps with a material that can emit the equivalent of carbon atoms, i.d.k., it doesn't seem impossible.
But yeah, once again you're probably right, we'll see 🤷♂️
It'd be very interesting to think of an hybrid system in which the betavoltaic cells are coupled with lithium batteries to give them some kind of natural regeneration over time(, a phone or computer could recover go from (50, or 20, or )0 to 100% overnight/'when it's not used')
This current model only gives 8.64 joules per day, but that's because 86400 is the number of seconds in a day, so if i divide 8.64 per 86400 i obtain 10^-4 W(, P=E/Δt), and the official/rounded number is 100μW.
Its volume is 1125mm^3 (15*15*5mm)
So, to drive 100km in an hour(, without the need to take into account accelerations for now), we'd need 100*200W=20kWh, or 2.10^4 Wh.
Most electric cars would only enable 4 hours at this rate with an 80kWh battery, but since this nuclear "battery" needs to be able to deliver 24h a day, we'd need 24 * 2.10^4 = 4,8.10^5 Wh
Hence, if we need 4,8.10^5 Wh and we have 100.10^-6 Wh for 1,125.10^3 mm^3 , a rule of three would give us 4,8.10^5 * 1,125.10^3 / 100.10^-6 mm^3 , that's 5,4.10^12 mm^3 , which is indeed 5400m^3 and not realistic.
Even a 200Wh computer would still need 54m^3 , and a 10Wh phone would need 2,7m^3 , the size of a car.
If the output was mutliplied by a thousand(, 100mW instead of 100μW,) then it'd be 2,7dm^3 , the size of a bottle and still a bit too big for a phone, but a "free" energy for 50 years, and if i'm keeping the thought above of an hybridation as a self-regenerative battery it'd refill 240Wh every day(, 24*10Wh,) but that's only if the output was multiplied by a thousand, which is unlikely.
Thank you very much for the correction, i didn't know that.
I wonder if i haven't made a mistake somewhere though, does it make sense that i'm obtaining 100μW by using seconds, and then comparing it with Wh ? If i had to multiply by 3600 before making this rule of three then that would change the conclusion.
8,64J/day would give 0,36J/h = 0,36Wh ? And would also give 100μJ/s = 100μW ?
I.d.k. anymore, but if i'm right this time then we'd need a 75cL bottle to refill 240Wh every day(, and for electric cars only 75L to refill 24kWh). I wouldn't be surprised if i made mistakes elsewhere so tell me what you think.
I don't know if you have the answer but, if i understood correctly, such 1W "battery"/generator would produce/refill 24Wh every day ?
If we put 10.000 BV100 in parallel(, to obtain 1W at the same 3V), that'd theoretically be 10 000 * 1125mm^3 = 1,125.10^7 mm^3 = 11L for 24Wh and 110L for 240Wh filled per day ? Ah well, w/e 🤷♂️. (edit : thanks for your answers though !)