Innovation

[keirsey]

Cheap BIG Batteries.

Invent your way out of the problem.

Ted Talk: Donald Sadoway

Full Spectrum Innovation

[Johan]

Impressive stuff. A lot of advantages on paper over pumped storage, e.g you can move these batteries around..reservoirs are a little less mobile His low-cost development/management approach is rather innovative as well.

[Johan]

Been wondering a bit about these batteries.... do they have any potential advantages over current molten metal Na-S batteries? The latter operate at around 350°C and are commercially available??

[keirsey]

Been wondering a bit about these batteries.... do they have any potential advantages over current molten metal Na-S batteries? The latter operate at around 350°C and are commercially available??

Not knowing much about it, my speculation would that the primary issue would be the life of the battery and the size of one battery unit. The according to article you refer to, these Na-S batteries have a 15 year life, and I didn't find anything about the size of the units, and scalability cost. Don't know much about the physics of the liquid Na-S batteries, they don't mention the electrolyte. Sadoway's batteries are three liquid layers Mg, NaCl, Sb. He uses gravity as the "structural" functional component in the organization of the battery -- that's what is so clever about it. Adding energy or subtracting energy is essentially the same. It seems very reversible (which also implies long battery life) And Sadoway claims scalability. Sadoway didn't talk about battery life. The other "selling" factor mentioned by Sadoway is non-linear addition or subtraction of power does not need any regulation -- essentially there is no catastrophic modes in the system. Not sure about the Na-S system.