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China develops iron battery 80 times cheaper than lithium that can last 16 years. It provides a budget-friendly, high-endurance answer for the world’s massive energy storage needs. (interestingengineering.com)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/technology@hexbear.net
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[–] 23 points 6 months ago* (6 children)

To put it simply: iron batteries are at a third of the density of lithium and is roughly the same price for housing installation per kWh as lithium. Idk what the other benefits of the medium are but if space or weight isn't a concern iron could make sense. If the batteries have better effeciency in hot and cold I could see it out competing lithium household batteries in places like Canada or Russia. But shipping prices will likely be astronomical

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  • [–] [S] 19 points 6 months ago (5 children)

    I imagine having cheap batteries paired with stuff like solar for grid stability would be an obvious use case here.

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  • [–] 16 points 6 months ago* (4 children)

    Yeah there's already some data centers and solar stations with these. This team made the longevity longer thus making them "cheaper"

    Currently I think vanadium flow batteries are the hottest rn

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  • [–] [S] 18 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    it seems like there's been a whole explosion of different battery tech in recent years, mostly coming from China

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  • [–] 14 points 6 months ago

    I've been saying for decades if we only had advanced battery tech, oh the things we could do.
    I've had an electric scooter since I got to China and it's great. Love the thing. Yes ti will run out of battery so you have to charge it. A battery is enough for a day's use usually. No, you don't drive to Tibet on a single charge.

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  • [–] 11 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah they clearly want to explore as many energy avenues as possible to avoid dependency on any one thing the west controls

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 6 months ago

    And different types of batteries work best for different purposes too. If you're making a vehicle then weight and size matters. If you're building battery parks for grid stability then cost is a bigger concern. China is going to end up with a big toolbox which will allow for efficient solutions no matter the context.

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