▲ 430 ▼ China develops iron battery 80 times cheaper than lithium that can last 16 years. It provides a budget-friendly, high-endurance answer for the world’s massive energy storage needs. (interestingengineering.com) submitted 3 months ago by HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org to c/upliftingnews@lemmy.world 64 comments fedilink hide all child comments cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/29105698 cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46526992 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2095495622003485
[+] Pyrixas@piefed.social 20 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children) [deleted] permalink fedilink source hideshow 6 child comments replies: [–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago (1 child) China has also been delivering, so I wouldn't bet against them. A notorious example is Tesla, when they adopted the lithium-iron-phosphate batteries made by CATL because they were cheaper, safer and easier to build (no nickel or cobalt required). Of course some of these articles are pure hype for vapourware, but this one's sounding plausible - they claim to have engineered a structure that is negatively charged, while also physically preventing electrolyte crossover, and that this prevents degradation by two orders of magnitude. It's not preposterous, and might be enough to make these batteries usable on a massive scale... permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] zergtoshi@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago (1 child) It's not preposterous, and might be enough to make these batteries usable on a massive scale... As I wrote in other comments here in this post, the tech is not exactly new: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_redox_flow_battery and it is e.g. in place in Sacramaneto, CA with a storage of 2 GWh and a maximum power of 200 MW. Apparently it's working and just need to be scaled up. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 1 point 3 months ago* They don't just need to work, they need to be economically viable. These batteries have active components, since they actually pump the electrolyte, and there's a fairly substantial level of degradation and corrosion, along with leaking across the membrane that leads to loss of capacity over time. If some of these problems can be reduced (like the article claims they do) then they're even more attractive. I really hope this helps with massively expanding renewables storage, because that's bastion holding up fossil fuels in electricity generation, and it will allow shutting down all those coal, gas, even nuclear plants! permalink fedilink source parent [–] zergtoshi@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago It's not like scientists in China had just invented it. Yet they seem to have improved the tech, especially around the forming of dendrites at the cathode. If you want proof that the tech works: a grid-strorage of the iron redox flow type has been installed in 2022 by ESS and Sacramento Municipal Utility District in California: https://www.smud.org/Corporate/About-us/News-and-Media/2022/2022/Accelerating-decarbonization-ESS-Inc-and-SMUD-announce-agreement-for-long-duration-energy-storage permalink fedilink source parent [–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 point 3 months ago (1 child) i just completely ignore all news about new battery technology, i seriously do not see the point in paying attention until it's actually available for purchase and people have tested it in real life. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] Aatube@piefed.social 3 points 3 months ago This is targeted towards industrial needs so I doubt it'd be available for consumer purchase (, just industry purchase). permalink fedilink source parent
[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago (1 child) China has also been delivering, so I wouldn't bet against them. A notorious example is Tesla, when they adopted the lithium-iron-phosphate batteries made by CATL because they were cheaper, safer and easier to build (no nickel or cobalt required). Of course some of these articles are pure hype for vapourware, but this one's sounding plausible - they claim to have engineered a structure that is negatively charged, while also physically preventing electrolyte crossover, and that this prevents degradation by two orders of magnitude. It's not preposterous, and might be enough to make these batteries usable on a massive scale... permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] zergtoshi@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago (1 child) It's not preposterous, and might be enough to make these batteries usable on a massive scale... As I wrote in other comments here in this post, the tech is not exactly new: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_redox_flow_battery and it is e.g. in place in Sacramaneto, CA with a storage of 2 GWh and a maximum power of 200 MW. Apparently it's working and just need to be scaled up. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 1 point 3 months ago* They don't just need to work, they need to be economically viable. These batteries have active components, since they actually pump the electrolyte, and there's a fairly substantial level of degradation and corrosion, along with leaking across the membrane that leads to loss of capacity over time. If some of these problems can be reduced (like the article claims they do) then they're even more attractive. I really hope this helps with massively expanding renewables storage, because that's bastion holding up fossil fuels in electricity generation, and it will allow shutting down all those coal, gas, even nuclear plants! permalink fedilink source parent
[–] zergtoshi@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago (1 child) It's not preposterous, and might be enough to make these batteries usable on a massive scale... As I wrote in other comments here in this post, the tech is not exactly new: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_redox_flow_battery and it is e.g. in place in Sacramaneto, CA with a storage of 2 GWh and a maximum power of 200 MW. Apparently it's working and just need to be scaled up. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 1 point 3 months ago* They don't just need to work, they need to be economically viable. These batteries have active components, since they actually pump the electrolyte, and there's a fairly substantial level of degradation and corrosion, along with leaking across the membrane that leads to loss of capacity over time. If some of these problems can be reduced (like the article claims they do) then they're even more attractive. I really hope this helps with massively expanding renewables storage, because that's bastion holding up fossil fuels in electricity generation, and it will allow shutting down all those coal, gas, even nuclear plants! permalink fedilink source parent
[–] ByteJunk@lemmy.world 1 point 3 months ago* They don't just need to work, they need to be economically viable. These batteries have active components, since they actually pump the electrolyte, and there's a fairly substantial level of degradation and corrosion, along with leaking across the membrane that leads to loss of capacity over time. If some of these problems can be reduced (like the article claims they do) then they're even more attractive. I really hope this helps with massively expanding renewables storage, because that's bastion holding up fossil fuels in electricity generation, and it will allow shutting down all those coal, gas, even nuclear plants! permalink fedilink source parent
[–] zergtoshi@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago It's not like scientists in China had just invented it. Yet they seem to have improved the tech, especially around the forming of dendrites at the cathode. If you want proof that the tech works: a grid-strorage of the iron redox flow type has been installed in 2022 by ESS and Sacramento Municipal Utility District in California: https://www.smud.org/Corporate/About-us/News-and-Media/2022/2022/Accelerating-decarbonization-ESS-Inc-and-SMUD-announce-agreement-for-long-duration-energy-storage permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 point 3 months ago (1 child) i just completely ignore all news about new battery technology, i seriously do not see the point in paying attention until it's actually available for purchase and people have tested it in real life. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] Aatube@piefed.social 3 points 3 months ago This is targeted towards industrial needs so I doubt it'd be available for consumer purchase (, just industry purchase). permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Aatube@piefed.social 3 points 3 months ago This is targeted towards industrial needs so I doubt it'd be available for consumer purchase (, just industry purchase). permalink fedilink source parent