BBC News: Molten metal batteries for the grid

[Rob Seastrom]

Rob Seastrom <rs at seastrom.com> writes:

> The other is one of the DC fast charging standards: CHAdeMO.  A
> display on charger tells you how much the car is ingesting.  While it
> tapers off greatly as the battery approaches "full", when one starts
> charging and is well under 50% full, things can really rock and roll.
> The "big" chargers have a nameplate rating of 50kw; the small ones
> half that.  I've personally witnessed 106A @ 391v.  AFAIK, it doesn't
> ramp up gently; it's a step load on the 480v 3-phase that feeds the
> charger.

I charged today at a CHAdeMO charger.  Pretty low (< 20%) when I
started.  Ramp-up was gentle, started at 6a or so and went up from
there.  Settled at 106A @ 380-something volts and I went inside.

That's a fair deal nicer than just closing the big knife switch...

-r