Why Rust Batteries May Be the Future of Energy - Iron Air Battery Technology

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[nothing]

Out of all the tech you've talked about recently, this one seems like the most likely to take off. Mostly because of the simplicity of the design and the cheap cost of production. Great work Matt!

[patrickbryant_]

It’s a common misconception that grid storage discharge time has anything to do with physical limitations of the battery tech. Lithium ion batteries can easily discharge for hundreds of hours. The issue is the market value of energy over these time scales versus the cost of the battery. Li-Ion is so expensive that it is only cost competitive for short time intervals where short peaks in demand place a strain on the usual suppliers. These peaks can generate enormous energy prices 100-1000x the average. Iron-air’s raw material cost and simplicity has the promise to reach the $20/kWh point where it becomes profitable to sell energy over tens or even hundreds of hours of continuous discharge when the price is much closer to average and you have to compete with traditional suppliers.

[Project]

Has anyone calculated the energy density of your puns, Matt? Dad jokes could also be a completely overlooked source of cheap and infinitely renewable energy.

[jasozilux]

Scott brought me here. Gotta say it's nice having two reliable science based channels. Regardless of whether it's the same topic of not, having multiple sources is important.

[theagemaway]

If the battery is going to take up a massive amount of land, then just put solar panels on top of it, that way the land is used for two complementary projects.

[michaelwing]

Police caught two men, one drinking battery acid, the other eating fireworks. One was charged, they let the other one off.

[NirvanaFan]

Super excited about long-duration batteries that are more eco-friendly. also, if lithium isn't being used for grid-scale projects, it'll help free it up for EVs... until we find a more eco-friendly option for that as well.

[AageV]

Something you might be interested in is the CESAR Basalt battery.

It is a way to store a surplus of electrical energy as heat inside a body of concrete mixed with steel slag to use this heat in the winter to heat up houses.

[JohnnyWednesday]

Hi Matt :D thank you so much for dedicating your time to help teach and inform us about a sustainable future - you're doing good in this world :)

[TheDebasishable]

I am learning about more new topics every month than I have learned in my undergrad. That's how much I am in awe of this channel. Thanks, man.

[billr]

My '77 Honda Accord would have made a great source for an iron-air battery. I could practically hear it rust away while it was just sitting in my garage! As I recall, Honda paid two replace and repaint the front fenders two times in the four years I owned the car.

[philipwoodgate]

I have been looking endlessly at potential battery solutions, but this seems to be the one that ticks the most boxes. Simple, cheap and very scalable. As long as the claims are legit.

[dogphlap]

That was LCOS. LCOS includes initial cost and ongoing costs like maintenance mediated by anticipated usable life in hours. I had to look it up.

[brianklaus]

Gave a thumbs up since this indirectly led to me having more puppy videos in my life

[larryseibold]

For grid storage, the cost to deploy a MWh (over its life, taking cycle life in) and the conversion efficiency cost/loss (charge*discharge=eff) both really matter.
How does rust compare to pumped water towers?

[SF-likh]

Please keep the new battery videos coming. Awesome series

[motleywells]

Great video! I am learning as much as I can about this process as the company I work for is helping build some automated equipment for them. This is by far the best education on the topic so far!

[theplaylab]

This Undecided series has the same vibe of Beyond 2000 from the 90s, albeit with an updated, chill soundtrack.

[MrGonzonator]

Speed of discharge "100hr of storage" is meaningless since you can discharge a lithium battery slower if you want, you just won't get much power.
Your video doesn't mention the power density of these iron batteries.

[oAvalono]

I hope something like this could apply to smaller towns like my home town. Our grid goes down for an average of 3 hours almost every month. If you can't afford a generator here, you're out of luck in an ice storm.