Form energy is building this $760 million Iron-Air battery factory. The size of a washer/dryer, these batteries are being eyed as grid-level storage. They can store energy far longer than Li-Ion, but would be paired with Li-ion/LFP since they discharge (and charge) slower.
They are 10 times cheaper and last 17 times longer than Li-Ion.
Do you think these will be the winner in this segment (where energy density is less important)
I wonder if one washer/dryer sized unit could be installed in a residential house? Coupled with a Powerwall type battery, the house could be run for 10 days in a power outage. A house with a large solar array could generate 100% of its electricity and remain grid tied to export energy. The battery could be charging up for weeks before moving in or while on vacation.
These batteries are being tested in medium scale applications today and could be available in 2024.
There is interesting news on batteries that might happen, such as Oxygen-Ion, that could last for hundreds of thousands of charge cycles. The battery of most EVs built today will last about 20 years without major degradation. The life cycle of Oxygen-Ion would be 100 times that… 200 years. Absurdly long. What’s the value of a life-cycle that long?
Iron-Air batteries are here today though. They work, but it’s a new technology that hasn’t been built at scale. They are built with no lithium so it this battery could ease the demand on the resource that goes into applications currently filled by batteries like the Tesla Power Pack.
Home backup doesn’t need to be high draw, just enough to run the fridge. Most current installs aren’t designed to run the HVAC during the summer but can probably operate the fan for forced air heating in the winter if you don’t have a heat pump.
We’ll use the best available for the given application until something better comes along. So there’s no real winner, especially in a field that’s making so much progress.
