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!

NGL, was expecting a rickroll.

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…

Energy density isn’t really a problem for grid-wide storage. Just build huge electrolyte tanks under the solar panels, voilà, generation and storage.

If they’re really stable, they’ll probably be placed all over the place and be a huge help in managing demand.

It won’t fit all use cases, you’ll want batteries with better density for anything mobile, but there’s definitely also a huge use case for this type of battery.

Definitely AI.

Not sure about public domain. Perhaps a non-commercial license would be best - this way fans can carry on the work, but others wouldn’t be tempted to profit off of the IP.

Yeah? Well when you PRESUME you make a pres out of u and me.