Yet another new battery technology...

mtdoc

Organic Mega Flow Batteries

Yeah, yeah, I know. Another "promising" new technology that purports to solve the Achilles heal of RE systems - energy storage.

But a few notable things about this. First it comes out of Haaa- arvard and was published in Nature - the preeminent peer-reviewed scientific journal. Another is that it uses organic molecules - even rhubarb is a potential source! Also the idea that it allows the decoupling of total energy stored from the peak power capability.

Here's the money quote:

Flow batteries store energy in chemical fluids contained in external tanks—as with fuel cells—instead of within the battery container itself. The two main components—the electrochemical conversion hardware through which the fluids are flowed (which sets the peak power capacity), and the chemical storage tanks (which set the energy capacity)—may be independently sized. Thus the amount of energy that can be stored is limited only by the size of the tanks. The design permits larger amounts of energy to be stored at lower cost than with traditional batteries

It would be nice to be able to increase your energy storage by just "filling up the tank" a bit farther.

Nothing that will be coming to NAWS for sale soon- maybe never - but I found it interesting none the less...8)