The Form Energy 8500 megawatt-hour battery project, taking shape in Maine, shows promise of being a giant step forward. A year ago, many might have balked at the idea of this scale of iron-air storage. The technology seemed far too bulky for a nimble green energy solution, but now it could become the way forward.
This 8500 Megawatt-Hour Battery Almost Defies Imagination
The Times Hub of India, tried its best to bring this massive project within the scope of our imagination. The system capacity equals the power of 130 million laptops, if we could join them together, they say.
Or, if we prefer, this battery could enable an electric car to follow the equator around our Earth 1228 times, on a single charge. This would mean its battery range would be greater than 30 million miles, if we lived that long!
Is This The Simple Energy Storage Solution We Were Waiting For?
This sure seems to be a distinct possibility, now we are getting our minds around the practicality. Iron-air battery storage is elegantly simple, compared to the complexity, and problems surrounding lithium-ion batteries:
- An iron air battery absorbs oxygen as it discharges, and this rusts (corrodes) the iron core.
- When we recharge an iron-air battery, this rust reconverts back to iron as the oxygen releases.
Iron-air battery composition is also elegantly simple. An individual cell consists of an iron, and an air electrode. Both of these rest in a single body of non-flammable, water-based electrolyte. The cells are in washing-machine-size battery packs each holding 50 cells.
Environmental Advantages of the 8500 Megawatt-Hour Battery
An iron-air storage system does not contain any rare, expensive, or high-density ‘heavy metals’ that are toxic, or poisonous at low concentrations. Moreover, their materials are abundantly available, and are easy to obtain.
Iron-air batteries are cheaper, and store energy at less than 10% of the cost of lithium-ion batteries. But they are however, heavy and bulky, making them unsuitable for portable devices, including electric vehicles.
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Iron-Air Electro-Chemical Cells That Rust
