[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Spuds

High-performance chemical batteries need a lot of support equipment to operate efficiently in non-ideal conditions. That support equipment has mass, and also uses power. Batteries are also consumables. Sometimes they are the right solution, but in this case I think certain industry elements are pushing it because it's convenient for them right now.

Electricity is useful because variances in potential are very unstable. That also makes it a bitch to store. Converting it to some other type of stable energy makes it much easier to store, though you lose some to entropy.

...which is why we need jet packs.