137 Year Old Battery Tech May Be The Future of Energy Storage

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I think maybe it's time for a battery tech roundup? I've lost track of all these battery types. How about following up on every single battery tech from the past few years, compare them on all their various metrics, fitness for various applications, see where they're at in terms of readiness, cost, and so on?

Gelion designing the one battery so that it uses the vast majority of the existing lead-acid battery manufacturing steps was a stroke of genius. Far, far too many potentially revolutionary battery technologies never make it out of the lab because they fail to make the jump to mass production, but I bet this one doesn't meet that same fate. The high functional temperature range and nonflammability are great, too, it means I could theoretically put one in my uninsulated garage and not care that the garage becomes an oven in the summer and a freezer in the winter. The thing would likely still work safely regardless.

The thing that sticks in my mind is the full discharge for dendrite removal. That’s the kind of thing set for a full battery management system with a bank of batteries. A system that could isolate a single battery at a time to take it through a full discharge cycle as part of an automated maintenance plan could extend the life of these batteries indefinitely… Promising ideas.

This video makes several comparisons to lithium ion and flow batteries, but I think it would make much more sense to compare zinc-bromide to sodium ion, which is a much more direct competitor and also entering the market right now. They're both low-cost, lower-than-lithium density, and using more sustainable materials

I absolutely love how you show your sources on screen. Such a simple thing to do, but so many content creators fail to back up their claims with even just a list of sources in the video description. It goes a long way to adding legitimacy to the presentation and I hope you know how much it is appreciated by so many of us.

I worked at a Zinc Bromine flow battery company in 2006 and the Zinc Dendrite growth was a serious problem that became a showstopper. I hope that GELION has truly overcome this issue to make these real.

I think this one's decided there Matt... As a half-Aussie I'm STOKED to see this coming out of Oz - it makes me so happy. God I hope they start pumping these out as fast as humanly possible, even if it's an evolving product. Use them for fixed location storage exclusively, standardise the installation and access mechanisms, get it into place in a practical sense and make sure the end client is aware it's a version 1.0 solution and will evolve/improve. Here in the UK we're running into grid problems (not just generation) and I have read that we may not be able to carry and deliver the power requirements for wider scale adoption of EVs mandated by soon-to-change regulations. We really really need distributed grid storage and rather badly... Australia has a strange mixture of savagely overpriced power (a side-effect of pseudo-competition overlaid on the old distribution structure) and power is monumentally more expensive than it should be; despite that they've endured brownouts and blackouts where there is no way that should be justified (this isn't a bushfire or flood thing, it's a government and mismanagement thing apparently). Imagine these popping up under houses and tied to domestic solar arrays, etc. - the amount of sunshine they get is hard to fathom. As for going outside - I know how those noodles in the microwave actually feel. The sun is harsh and relentless much of the time, if these really are much cheaper then the main problem will be getting your mitts on these batteries and infrastructure (God help you trying to find a licensed installer then). Not sure how many lead-acid plants we have in the UK but licensing that tech would probably make sense, even if it ends up being a stepping stone before fusion reactors take over the world (as the media claimed this morning) we really do need that interim step. Even more so if international tensions and war is on the horizon; this makes a grid vastly more difficult to knock out indeed. National grid resilience is just not sold hard enough by either the industry or government (against attack or disaster) and I really think we need to step that message up sharply. These types of devices are the meat and potatoes of making that happen, absolutely LOVE it.

I'm a big fan of this battery chemistry because of it's simplicity, durability, and safety. Zinc and Bromine are super common. It seems like a clear winner to me.

My family has some land in a rural area that has limited grid connection. I think this would be interesting to use up there, especially considering my dad is planning on installing a somewhat large solar array to power all of his buildings and machines. It's in Wisconsin though, so we get hot summers and cold winters. It'd be interesting to create our own grid up there. Maybe sell some power to the neighbors, lol.

I have a large lithium-ion DIY powerwall in it's 5th year of operation. Over the last 5 years, LifePo4 has taken DIY powerwalls by storm. A key difference between them is the voltage range. Lithium-ion has a relatively large (3.0v -> 4.2v) operating range so you can set max charge/discharge by voltage to manage DOD. LifePo4 has a very flat discharge curve which means it's preferred to do coulomb tracking instead of the simpler voltage approach to manage DOD. MY POINT: One thing you don't mention in these battery technology discussions is the voltage range - e.g. flat like LifePo4 or wider like Lithium-ion. And are they compatible with nominal 12v, 24v 48v systems. For example, lithium-ion does not work for 12v systems as neither 3s or 4s matches the voltage range of standard equipment properly - but does fine for 24v and 48v equipment. LifePo4 does all 3. I agree these are smaller points :) but I'd suggest that these youtubes are nerdy and the voltage range, 12/24/48v compatibility, BMSs available?, and cycles are of great interest to DIY folks like myself and would add interest in you're presentations.

Great video Matt. Its good to see this with the companies like Redflow having their products actually on the market, not just in labs/testing. These seem to make so much more sense for many non mobile storage solutions. They also had some good claims about losses when the battery was idle that seemed to be another real advantage over the lithium storage solutions. It seems like lithium is more riding a wave of popularity and more people need to be made aware of other solutions that may be more suitable for specific applications.

From the European point-of-view we seriously need to focus on energy storage that handles the "last mile" meaning distributing the energy storage as close to the homes as possible. Having a cheap, safe battery to put into basements and car parks is essential for this application. We cannot build the whole infra to handle EV cars and going "all electric", so we need to "trickle load" a very distributed energy storage that is as close to the homes and cars as possible. We also need a lot of storage as many countries have waaay over built wind energy.

Thomas Maschmeyer was one of my college professors - an absolute genius and a wonderful guy all round! So proud to see what he has pioneered within a fantastic team!

Great update on these batteries. I definitely would consider them as a possible home backup storage system (if they become available for the USA residential market). I will have to check into this possibility.

Man, Australia is really leading the way with battery tech. The aluminum-graphene battery was also developed there and it has massive potential. They're doing something right down under!

An excellent and well-explained video Matt! You find ways to explain complex technology to those of us without an EE degree. Thank you. Sounds promising for use downstream of renewables in both large scale and home/office backup.

Awesome to see Redflow recognized in the industry. Our solar company has collaborated with them on a few micro grid projects for commercial clients. Great group of professionals.

You mentioned high temperatures but how do zinc-bromine batteries perform in freezing conditions?

How do these compare to Edison style iron-nickel batteries? Long life on those.