[josecyc]

I don't know about this. Countless times researchers discover the next battery so much better than the current state-of-the-art being deployed, only to find out they just can't scale it. New battery technology is really hard.

[Animats]

Yes. Surface chemistry ("nanotechnology") seems to attract this sort of hype.

"The prototype manganese-hydrogen battery, reported April 30 in Nature Energy, stands just three inches tall and generates a mere 20 milliwatt hours of electricity ... The researchers are confident they can scale up this table-top technology..."

That is a really puny battery. It's 1/10th the energy capacity of a typical watch/hearing aid battery, which is about as small as you can buy retail. And it's 3 inches tall. So system energy density is currently something like 0.001 of commercial batteries.

They should have scaled it up a bit more before turning on the hype machine. It's embarrassing to see this out of Stanford.

[TTPrograms]

Utility scale batteries optimize for energy/$, not energy density or weight etc.

Your comparisons are totally irrelevant.

[vanderZwan]

On that note, does anyone have any idea how it might compare to Peter Allen's open source Iron Battery project? I know the latter is in a very early stage, but maybe there is already a theoretical limit that can be predicted given the properties of manganese and iron.

http://peterallenlab.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-t9a7XVoH9lDJzhUF2nyHQ

[88e282102ae2e5b]

I dunno...academic funding is dysfunctional and this kind of hyperoptimistic prediction can help you get your next grant.

[jlebrech]

it's might be a really crappy battery, but having it use something that's virtually limitless and nearly free is a good way to go.

[ianai]

It’s only nearly free if it’s salt water.

[fooker]

We do have a virtually inexhaustible source of salt water..

[ianai]

Fresh water, not quite so easily sourced.

[fooker]

That is sort of the point of this article. Also read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_desalination

[bonesss]

Atomic process heat is near ideal for water desalination.

Granted, investments in atomic energy eliminates a lot of the need for storage...

[eloff]

Depends where you source it from.

[jlebrech]

luckily there's another upcoming battery tech that needs sodium

[sitkack]

How about starting with the goal of making a warehouse scale battery and starting backwards?