Batteries have been around for over a century, but it is only recently that their universal takeover seems to have begun in earnest. The first of two watershed moments came in the early 1990s with the development of the lithium-ion battery. This innovation massively increased battery efficiency and power output, in turn expanding the applications for which batteries were a suitable solution. The second great watershed only occurred relatively recently, with electric cars finally having their moment of mass consumer appeal. Spurred on by the ever-mounting pressure of various environmental concerns, the majority of car companies have now promised full electrification by sometime in the 2030s. And if something as energy intensive as a car can be powered by batteries to such a degree of success that they can match the performance of traditional gas-powered vehicles, then it seems like batteries could power anything. The future seems set to be dominated by them.
Bigger Machines
Yet there is one area of technology where the battery is certainly not yet dominant. This is the various machinery required for heavy industry. We are talking construction machinery and powerful factory equipment typically working with tough materials such as heavy metals as well as long distance haulage trucks. As things stand, internal combustion, which was dominant everywhere else until very recently, remains, along with hydraulics, the primary means of operating machines and large trucks. Heavy industry can be thought of as the last area that batteries have yet to conquer – but there are attractive incentives for doing so.
Increasingly, there have been a drive towards battery power in many areas. As of today, most of the major car manufacturing companies have made commitment to stop production of gas-powered vehicles by the 2030s. Batteries are also now more ubiquitous among everyday consumer items than ever before, with USB rechargeable batteries such as those produced by Utah-based Pale Blue Earth offering massively increased efficiency over their single-use counterparts. Heavy industry could go the same way, but there are several barriers to be overcome.
The Barriers
There is a strong business case for incorporating battery power into heavy industry, with many machines already operated by electric power. Examples here include electric unloading ramps and forklift trucks. Yet barriers remain. Such barriers include the relatively short range offered by battery power for haulage trucks. The energy required is simply much greater as the weights involved and the distances that they must travel are significantly higher. Such vehicles also travel for long distances across rural areas where there is not yet a sufficient network of charging points. To illustrate how far electrification in this area is lagging, it is worth considering that there was no electric truck market to speak of as recently as 2014.
For machinery, the situation is similar. There is actually a range of machinery that has been battery-powered for some time, but there has been little encroachment of electrification beyond these.
Solutions
Incentivization is ultimately the way forward. With heavy-duty vehicles, developments already being made for electric cars could see the technology reach a point very soon when it could be suitable for use in trucks. Recently announced improvements in battery power for cars already suggests technology that could be suitable for heavy-duty vehicles.
Where machinery is concerned, it is all about government pressure on fossil fuel industries to clean up their act. This is an area where pressure from environmental lobbies, and ultimately governments, has been active for some time. Longer, in fact, than the pressures on the car industry. In short then, it could just be a matter of waiting.
