Because the world builds out ever bigger installations of wind and solar energy methods, the necessity is rising quick for economical, large-scale backup methods to offer energy when the solar is down and the air is calm. Immediately’s lithium-ion batteries are nonetheless too costly for many such functions, and different choices resembling pumped hydro require particular topography that is not at all times accessible.
Now, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a brand new form of battery, made fully from considerable and cheap supplies, that would assist to fill that hole.
The brand new battery structure, which makes use