This is called discovery and innovation. The former President George W. Bush stated the path to ending the climate crisis was investment and innovation. Well, here it is.
Changes to the way things are done is through research and development. This is an iron battery that assists in the viability of an alternative energy power grid. President Biden wants wind power offshore for the entire east coast. It is long over due.
Currently, Scotland has wind, wave and tidal energy to bring 80 percent of it's electricity to the Scottish people. Scotland developed it's alternative energy grid starting in 2002. Scotland's wind, wave and tidal energy does not emit one molecule of greenhouse gas in production.
Now, there are iron batteries. What will the future actually look like? I don't think most people can say. But, without profound commitment from a legislature in the USA ready to end the climate crisis, projects important to our children's future will be lost.
Everyone should be ashamed. This is the United States of America where the impossible is possible. Enough already. Research and development MUST go forward to bring alternative energy to the sustainable economy of the USA.
By Akshat Rathi
The world’s electric grids are creaking (click here) under the pressure of volatile fossil-fuel prices and the imperative of weaning the world off polluting energy sources. A solution may be at hand, thanks to an innovative battery that’s a cheaper alternative to lithium-ion technology.
SB Energy Corp., a U.S. renewable-energy firm that’s an arm of Japan’s SoftBank Group, is making a record purchase of the batteries manufactured by Energy Storage Systems. The Oregon company says it has new technology that can store renewable energy for longer and help overcome some of the reliability problems that have caused blackouts in California and record-high energy prices in Europe.
The units, which rely on something called “iron-flow chemistry,” will be used in utility-scale solar projects dotted across the U.S., allowing those power plants to provide electricity for hours after the sun sets. SB Energy will buy enough batteries over the next five years to power 50,000 American homes for a day.
“Long-duration energy storage, like this iron-flow battery, are key to adding more renewables to the grid,” said Venkat Viswanathan, a battery expert and associate professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
ESS was founded in 2011 by Craig Evans, now president, and Julia Song, the chief technology officer. They recognized that while lithium-ion batteries will play a key role in electrification of transportation, longer duration grid-scale energy storage needed a different battery. That’s because while the price of lithium-ion batteries has declined 90% over the last decade, their ingredients, which sometimes include expensive metals such as cobalt and nickel, limit how low the price can fall.
The deal for 2 gigawatt-hours of batteries is worth at least $300 million, according to ESS. Rich Hossfeld, chief executive officer of SB Energy, said the genius of the units lies in their simplicity....
