With calcium 2,500 times more abundant than lithium, battery offers viable option with theoretically comparable energy density, Fudan University scientists say in paper for Nature.
Snow could be melted by heating the solar panel. Unless it’s snowing constantly this could still be net positive over multiple days. This would mostly be useful for grid storage / house storage. But I could imagine an EV doing this too - a few solar panels to heat up the batteries each morning to improve efficiency. Or if it’s plugged in. It should be relatively easy and cheap to negate the problems of low temperature with 1 kW of PV for 250€, a micro controller and a temperature sensor and some resistance wire.
Snow and lack of sun in areas where it regularly drops below zero would be an issue with that.
Snow could be melted by heating the solar panel. Unless it’s snowing constantly this could still be net positive over multiple days. This would mostly be useful for grid storage / house storage. But I could imagine an EV doing this too - a few solar panels to heat up the batteries each morning to improve efficiency. Or if it’s plugged in. It should be relatively easy and cheap to negate the problems of low temperature with 1 kW of PV for 250€, a micro controller and a temperature sensor and some resistance wire.