Joined: 6 Feb 2005 Age: 44 Gender: Male Posts: 24,194 Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi
26 Apr 2021, 9:07 pm
I've been interested in this development for a while, ie. grid batteries for assisting renewable energy sources in storing excess load without needing to use lithium ion.
The story goes that Ambri, and it's founder Prof Donald Sadoway (MIT), had been working with very common earth metals trying to find the right combination, along with a salt layer in the middle, to get a reliable grid battery which would have inexpensive and easily sourced materials and would have a long battery life. They settled on Calcium Antimony, seems like the melting point for it is relatively low (500-550 C°), materials are relatively cheap, and they've boasted something like 80% efficiency.
Their first big application will be a TerraScale facility in Nevada, supplying a 250mMWh array to keep the facility running at night. Seeing this project is encouraging because one of the challenges right now is new technologies that haven't hit peak production efficiency yet making their way to market at a competitive enough price to get in - and that takes at least having a small market to start with.
_________________ “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin
Joined: 3 May 2016 Age: 43 Gender: Male Posts: 3,420 Location: Yorkshire, UK
27 Apr 2021, 3:10 pm
I'm intrigued to see calcium used in a battery- an alkali earth metal instead of the more usual alkali metals. Good to see they've found buyers for a slightly unusual technology. (I've been ranting a bit about the lithium problem elsewhere.)
_________________ You're so vain I bet you think this sig is about you
Joined: 27 Oct 2014 Age: 39 Gender: Non-binary Posts: 25,499 Location: Right over your left shoulder
27 Apr 2021, 3:38 pm
I figured John B. Goodenough was a joke name.
_________________ Watching liberals try to solve societal problems without a systemic critique/class consciousness is like watching someone in the dark try to flip on the light switch, but they keep turning on the garbage disposal instead. 戦争ではなく戦争と戦う
Yeah, that's a really smart idea - if the car/EV battery is the structure of the car there goes the added weight.
_________________ “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin
26 Apr 2021, 9:07 pm
