Startup Claims Breakthrough in Long-Duration Batteries

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

WSJ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Startup Claims Breakthrough in Long-Duration Batteries

Form Energy’s iron-air batteries could have big ramifications for storing electricity on the power grid

A new battery from Form Energy uses iron, water and air to store enormous amounts of electricity as in three of its prototypes.

By Russell Gold | Photographs by Philip Keith for The Wall Street Journal
Updated July 22, 2021 8:29 am ET

A four-year-old startup says it has built an inexpensive battery that can discharge power for days using one of the most common elements on Earth: iron.

Form Energy Inc.’s batteries are far too heavy for electric cars. But it says they will be capable of solving one of the most elusive problems facing renewable energy: cheaply storing large amounts of electricity to power grids when the sun isn’t shining and wind isn’t blowing.

The work of the Somerville, Mass., company has long been shrouded in secrecy and nondisclosure agreements. It recently shared its progress with The Wall Street Journal, saying it wants to make regulators and utilities aware that if all continues to go according to plan, its iron-air batteries will be capable of affordable, long-duration power storage by 2025.

Its backers include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate investment fund whose investors include Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos. Form recently initiated a $200 million funding round, led by a strategic investment from steelmaking giant ArcelorMittal SA, one of the world’s leading iron-ore producers.

Form is preparing to soon be in production of the “kind of battery you need to fully retire thermal assets like coal and natural gas” power plants, said the company’s chief executive, Mateo Jaramillo, who developed Tesla Inc.’s Powerwall battery and worked on some of its earliest automotive powertrains.

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Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/startup-claims-breakthrough-in-long-duration-batteries-11626946330

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https://twitter.com/russellgold

[e-mail]

A startup says it has cracked the elusive long-duration battery puzzle

Link to tweet

[Mosby]

1. Sounds like a scam.

[RKP5637]

3. Here is an interesting article ...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468067219300318

[Boxerfan]

6. Explain please

Because the technology is very old for iron batteries.
Seems odd to call it a scam with zero evidence.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. "Seems odd to call it a scam with zero evidence."

Not at DU.

[Mosby]

12. Whats the "breakthrough" then?

Why is it "shrouded in secrecy"?

Why not file patents for the "breakthrough"?

[OnlinePoker]

18. Form has many patents pending

Some are for metal/air battery architecture.

[paleotn]

24. Holy grail.....

For renewables, cheap, reliable grid storage IS the holy grail. The complete game changer. It's worth trillions. Literally. I can understand the secrecy. Time will tell.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

26. The word patent originates from the Latin patere, which means "to lay open," i.e., to make available

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent

Once you file a patent, everyone can see what you're doing, including the unscrupulous, who have no problem with stealing your work.

The formula for Coca-Cola is not patented. If it were, everyone could see what went into it.

Thanks for writing.

[MineralMan]

7. Not to me, it doesn't. Did you read the link?

It's not a completely new technology, either. It sounds like they have refined it, though, through careful research. Sounds promising to me. And cheap to build, since it does not require mining and processing rather rare elements.

[Miguelito Loveless]

15. As it is behind a paywall, I can't read the details

What are the specs/price/time to production? Has the tech been examined and verified by independent third parties?

[MineralMan]

17. Google Iron Air Battery, then.

There are all sorts of articles about the concept. As for the state of this particular venture, I don't know. According to the developers, they've solved the problem of how many charge/discharge cycles the battery can handle. If they're successful with that, they'll be successful with the battery technology, which is actually very simple and cheap to manufacture.

Would I invest? No. I don't invest in companies at all. I see this as a promising venture, though. I can understand why big investors are putting money behind it.

[Miguelito Loveless]

27. The charge/discharge cycle is but one aspect of a battery

There are eight key characteristics that govern batteries, and it is a tricky thing to get the right combination of these factors:

1) Specific energy
2) Specific power
3) Cost
4) Cycle life
5) Safety
6) Temp range
7) Toxicity
8) Charging speed

This battery seems great with #1, #3-#5, but the remainder are pretty important if you want to use the batteries for EVs, for example. Without all the specs, this is just another "breakthrough" claim, of which I have read one every other month for the last 15 years. Twixt the lab and factory is a graveyard of "breakthrough" batteries.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

29. It was noted in the OP and by someone who replied that these batteries are not for mobile use.

These batteries are for power generation facilities.

OP:

Form Energy Inc.’s batteries are far too heavy for electric cars. But it says they will be capable of solving one of the most elusive problems facing renewable energy: cheaply storing large amounts of electricity to power grids when the sun isn’t shining and wind isn’t blowing.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142773419#post28:

NickB79

28. Remember, these are for grid storage use. IE, non-mobile

These are batteries the size of semi trailers, dozens of them sitting in permanent spots like power plants.

These aren't meant to replace lithium batteries in vehicles.

[Miguelito Loveless]

32. For non-mobile use

high energy density is quite desirable, but high power is as well (the ability to discharge quickly and sustain high power output).

Weight also is obviously less of an issue.

[OnlinePoker]

19. I was able to read the full article by opening the tweet and then clicking on the article there

Seemed to get around the paywall.

[pandr32]

20. Good tip--thank you!

[RKP5637]

2. K&R!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Nice to know the billionaires got in early, like most of us, amiright?

Iron won't be a toxic form of storage. So there's good news there.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. They took a risk. They had no guarantee that their investments would pay off. They still don't.

Its backers include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate investment fund whose investors include Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos. Form recently initiated a $200 million funding round, led by a strategic investment from steelmaking giant ArcelorMittal SA, one of the world’s leading iron-ore producers.

Full disclosure: I own shares of ArcelorMittal. When I posted the article, I hadn't noticed that ArcelorMittal was involved.

[Hoyt]

9. Well, if it works as claimed, I'm glad they did get involved.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

10. Russell Gold

This must be one of his final pieces at The Wall Street Journal. He wrote about PGE's plan to bury some of its power lines. That article was apparently his final effort. He now works at Texas Monthly. What sort of power line issues could there be in Texas?

https://twitter.com/TexasMonthly

I'm sure I've linked to a few of his articles at DU.

Best wishes, Mr. Gold.

That's a wrap folks.

Link to tweet

PG&E to spend up to $20 billion to bury wires in fire prone areas.

(Safeguarding against climate change won't be cheap.)

Link to tweet

[Hugin]

11. There are a number of metals based long duration battery technologies being researched.

The development on Aluminum 'batteries' using a thimble full of Gallium(?) as a catalyst was what first caught my attention. As, they are lighter in weight and actually provide a stronger impulse reaction than Iron. The down side being they require a much higher thermal energy to 'recharge' the Al by driving off the oxygenation.

It's nice to see someone working on Iron with some success.

The value of these 'Metal Batteries' is they can be cycled directly from a thermal source instead of relying on an electrical current being generated somewhere for a recharge.

[Miguelito Loveless]

13. If I had a nickel for every story making this claim

I could buy me a Republican senator.

[Mr. Sparkle]

14. Going from the lab to the real world is very difficult.

that's where most of these companies run into major problems that are very difficult to solve. So its best to take a await and see approach and see what they bring to the market.

[Mr. Evil]

16. Famous words of an optimist:

"I sure hope this works."

[speak easy]

21. Murphy was an optimist :)

[Mr. Evil]

23. Hah!

[Old Crank]

22. From the form company

A bit more detail on how this works since it was hard to get past the WSJ paywall.

https://formenergy.com/technology/battery-technology/

[paleotn]

25. Zen master says....we'll see.

Hope they're on to something. If they are, it's a complete game changer. And incredibly cheap. If true, it's worth trillions of $'s, GBP, Euros, Yen, Yuan.....

[NickB79]

28. Remember, these are for grid storage use. IE, non-mobile

These are batteries the size of semi trailers, dozens of them sitting in permanent spots like power plants.

These aren't meant to replace lithium batteries in vehicles.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

31. Here's what we have now for storing surplus electrical energy: pumped storage.

Pumped-storage hydroelectricity


Diagram of the TVA pumped storage facility at Raccoon Mountain Pumped-Storage Plant in Tennessee, United States


Shaded-relief topo map of the Taum Sauk pumped storage plant in Missouri, United States. The lake on the mountain is built upon a flat surface, requiring a dam around the entire perimeter.

Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), or pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing. The method stores energy in the form of gravitational potential energy of water, pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation. Low-cost surplus off-peak electric power is typically used to run the pumps. During periods of high electrical demand, the stored water is released through turbines to produce electric power. Although the losses of the pumping process make the plant a net consumer of energy overall, the system increases revenue by selling more electricity during periods of peak demand, when electricity prices are highest. If the upper lake collects significant rainfall or is fed by a river then the plant may be a net energy producer in the manner of a traditional hydroelectric plant.

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It's not an efficient method of storing energy.