Almost exactly 12 years ago, I wrote a blog about alternative solutions for generating electricity - both for homes and automobiles. This included options for electric cars. One of those involved research being done by a company called "EEStor". Their approach was to create a "super-capacitor" for storing electricity. Capacitors have some advantages and disadvantages compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries. They can be charged (and discharged) very quickly, which would make them an ideal power source in cars. They also would greatly reduce the need for lithium, which is getting scarcer and is dirty to mine.

On the downside, it has not been feasible to create one that is small enough to fit in a car, and still hold enough of a charge as to be useful. That is problem that EEStor supposedly was very close to resolving. It seems, though, that either their technology was bought out and suppressed, or they just couldn't make it past the laws of physics before they ran out of money. They have since changed their name and seem focused on other "green" technologies.

That doesn't mean the dream has died. Others have taken up the mantle of creating super-capacitors using - of all things - hemp:

(more details here)

With the source material essentially being an agricultural waste product, the raw materials are nearly free. The research is promising, and one can still hope that this can be engineered into a useful cost-effective solution to replace our current technologies.