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Rechargeable nickel-zinc batteries, the complement to silver-zinc batteries we took a look at a few weeks ago, will shortly be with us. If all goes well, they'll ultimately do the job of both nickel-cadmium (NiCd) and nickel- metal-hydride (NiMH) types. But aside from the application (power tools and small vehicles), the similarities between nickel-zinc and silver-zinc are quite striking.
Much like the silver-zinc advantage that's claimed over lithium-ion, users can expect a 30 percent advantage right out of the box from NiZn over NiCd and NiMH in energy- and power-density, according to PowerGenix, the San Diego based company behind the effort. And the number of charge cycles, a problematic factor in adapting the battery's use to modern applications (primary NiZn batteries go back decades in military applications) is now several hundred.
The cost per watt-hour for the nickel-zinc might well be lower than NiMH, could compete favorably with NiCd and would be almost half the cost of lithium-ion, if you had to make that distinction. The new battery is designed to away with many of the safety and toxicity issues plaguing a battery having organic electrolytes. And they say NiZn has better low-temperature performance than NiMH.
What's more, the new batteries reportedly can be manufactured using existing NiCd and NiMH production lines and are now in high volume production. In fact, they're due to appear as a sub-C cell for a power tool next month, a D-cell at the end of the year, and before too long, a rechargeable AA battery that has 100 percent compatibility with throwaway AA batteries. So the overall value proposition (performance vs. cost. vs. toxicity) looks good.
Last but not least, they're poised to make the same step-advances in performance as NiCd and NiMH did, but in far less time. It sounds unbeatable. We'll have our interview with Dan Squiller, CEO of PowerGenix for you in short order, and let him tell you how he sees it.
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