A Massachusetts-based company called Form Energy recently unveiled the details of its much anticipated, multi-day energy storage system, a technology that’s been known for decades but never truly commercialized: iron-air batteries.
Google “Iron batteries” if you are interested in building some. This is a tech that is not super efficient in terms of Wh/kg but that is extremely cheap so it can make sense for a static powerwall-style installation. If only we produce it to scale. Exploring the automation of this process has been on my todo list for a while.
On the plus side as well (and kind of the reason why it is so cheap) is that it does not require any “exotic” material or rare earth. From what I heard (did not check personally, I have zero chemistry skills) there is one nasty chemical in the production process but it is reusable and does not need to be discarded.
Google “Iron batteries” if you are interested in building some. This is a tech that is not super efficient in terms of Wh/kg but that is extremely cheap so it can make sense for a static powerwall-style installation. If only we produce it to scale. Exploring the automation of this process has been on my todo list for a while.
On the plus side as well (and kind of the reason why it is so cheap) is that it does not require any “exotic” material or rare earth. From what I heard (did not check personally, I have zero chemistry skills) there is one nasty chemical in the production process but it is reusable and does not need to be discarded.